Post-Corona cars are all much brighter. Its gotten so bad that I'm frequently left wondering if people are driving with high beams or just regular new-age lights. Got to wait to see if the person on the other side drops the lights to be sure. SUVs in particular are bad especially during acceleration which points the lights higher and on inclined road. I also regularly "switch" rear-view mirror to dim mode otherwise I'm literally 3-way blinded also from side mirrors. I didn't do any of these things regularly 5y ago. I'm still wondering if this is just automotive industry incompetence of making safe vehicles or an "incentive" to buy a SUV yourself so you don't get blinded all the time.
There are definitely people who don't care to switch between high and low beams when oncoming traffic appears. I was riding in the passenger seat with an ex-coworker the other night, and I noticed he just kept the high beams on the entire time. After a while I asked him, "Why don't you turn the headlights down when there's oncoming traffic?" He looked at me like I just asked the most ridiculous question and said "What do you mean? The high beams are brighter and make it easier for me to see." I reminded him that high beams blind other drivers and he basically said "Fuck them, I don't care and that's their problem if they don't like it." --that seems to be pretty much America's slogan right now. Fuck everyone else, I'm doing what I want.
I have a 2021 model vehicle and it has an “auto” setting for headlights, where it turns them on or off automatically depending on if it detects a car in front of them. It’s better latency then I have as a human remembering I have them on and turning them off so I use the feature but it’s definitely not instant and I’ve noticed it fail to detect a few times when there’s obstructions over the sensor like snow or rain.
I assume this wasn’t unique to my $30k model of car and is a common feature now, so might be the cause of the extra brightness
> SUVs in particular are bad especially during acceleration which points the lights higher
Aren't self-leveling headlights standard by now? I think in the EU it was mandatory for Xenon lights, but I don't know whether LED lights are considered differently. My dad's almost 20 yo Citroën had such headlights, even though, thanks to the funky suspension, the car never had dramatic changes in level.
Here in the UK I can't say that we have the same issue - BUT we have far fewer SUVs and lights are regulated far more. You'll fail your yearly MOT (car roadworthiness test) if you have lights that are too bright or misaligned, and I have seen people pulled over in London for having non-standard/too bright lights.
We have a wattage maximum for headlights too. I am under the impression that roadworthiness test and regulations are very different in the states - is that the case?
- brighter headlights are falsely perceived to be of better quality, or,
- they are but more prevalent because of COVID economic downturn necessitating upsells, or,
- 2019 is simply 5 years ago, or,
- undocumented neurological long-COVID effect is affecting engineers?
One reason for driving with high beams is one of your headlights is out. Then you turn on your high beams, problem fixed! You'll see it in places with less money, esp where I live in Philly. I would never do it, but that's the reason I've seen and heard from people.
> Due to a software data set error, the affected vehicles were programmed from the factory after the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) specs, whereas U.S.-spec vehicles need to conform to the requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS).
Presumably, if there were a way for the headlights to comply with both US and EU regulations, they'd just have them be that way everywhere, rather than having to deal with multiple configurations at all. So are the US and EU both saying that each other's way is wrong and too dangerous?
There are some notable value judgements that are different between US and EU regulations.
I remember reading that the US car safety rules generally assume that the people in the car do not follow the rules, whereas EU regulations assume they follow the law and use seatbelts.
US crash safety tests don’t care about the damage the car does to pedestrians, but EU regulations do factor that in.
Since the brightness seems to be the issue, the only way I his makes sense to me is:
The US limits the brightness to X, the EU limits the brightness to Y, and Y > X.
Porsche could just make every car globally use X, but they’re a luxury brand so they probably try to use Y where they can, even if it is a bit of work to differentiate between markets.
Bear in mind that matrix lights are the norm in EU on high end cars while in US they are prohibited. I bet that explains the brightness: you can have overly bright lights if they are matrix while obviously that would be detrimental in regular headlights.
But also, since it's a software-addressable issue, and because this process is likely such a headache, I wonder if in a couple of years they'll have a version that picks its headlight configuration based on your location. You'll drive over a border at night and do a slight double-take as your lights change their beam width or something.
Presumably, if there were a way for the headlights to comply with both US and EU regulations, they'd just have them be that way everywhere...
Unless someone in the marketing department has determined that headlight brightness is a selling point for 0.001% of customers, in which case they'd configure them to the maximum allowed in the region.
>So are the US and EU both saying that each other's way is wrong and too dangerous?
Real life disagreements on minor technicalities between competing bureaucracies are not zero sum or conducted in breathless hand wringing internet rhetoric. It's more like a disagreement on a FOSS mailing list.
The default 'height' of the Tesla Model Y headlights make it appear to be bright lights by default. I live in the DC metro area, and buses (who are typically folks that drive a lot) would constantly flash me to let me know they thought my brights were on.
You can go into the car's settings and lower the headlights, but because of where it is by default, it presents a dangerous situation for other cars. How many non-tech folks would know to even search for this option?
I had to do the same with my 3 when I got it years back. Now people also get confused when I have my fog lights on (but that’s rare given how annoying difficult it is to find the setting on a touchscreen while driving). Actually calibrating the lights angle should be done at the factory (or prior to delivery), but mine were definitely too high.
But I think in general (and with other cars too), the problem isn’t the brightness of lights, but their angle. Bit even with my lights lowered, if I’m at a stop light that is on a slight hill, that still can cause the angle of my lights to appear to someone on the other side as too bright.
Was buying a new car headlight last year and the sales associate pointed me to replace my halogen bulbs with new (more expensive) LED "fog lights", but they were clearly labelled "not legal for use on public roads". I wonder how many people get upsold on headlights which are actually illegally bright and never notice.
The most annoying thing for me is the "blue fringe" on a lot of modern headlights that use lenses to refract and focus the light. These lenses aren't the best and have chromatic aberration, resulting in a fringe of blue light at the top of the beam.
Result: people see flashing blue(-ish) light in their rear view mirror. Not a good thing, very distracting!
I had this the worst the other day. A car was following me and I kept thinking there was an emergency vehicle behind because I could see the blue fringe.
The worst thing about all these lights is they aren't static. For a start I can see the LEDs flickering, presumably due to PWM. Why a fully DC circuit that doesn't even dim the bulbs needs to use PWM is beyond me. But the worst is their "clever" auto levelling and dipping etc. It just looks like the light is constantly in flux which is really distracting and annoying.
Always interesting about how people get angry about headlights in the USA.
Being from Europe, the European ones are superior. They go further and they are brighter, and have a different cut-off: ECE vs DOT: https://i.ibb.co/ryf8W0w/dotece.jpg
When I lived in Europe (Belgium) every year the beam height was checked on my car. That way I wouldn't blind people when driving behind them.
Here in there US there are no such things, yet cars often enough get headlights replaced which aren't adjusted afterwards. Or people install a lift-kit which hasn't been taken into account when designing the vehicle.
Now I wonder if the Macan has different lights in the US vs ROW, as the cut-off isn't something that is easily changeable, and it would massively increase the cost for something that is never activated.
But having the same bulbs makes sense.
That said, I looked into replacing the headlights on mine, but then you end up with a Frankenstein's monster car, as parts of it are US coded, and parts EU. I did get EU mirrors.
High beams are becoming some kind of weapon here in the EU. You have red spots and lines for some time when you happen to encounter a Porsche SUV heading your way angrily flashing at the one in front of them. What‘s next? Lasers? They are just too powerful.
1) indicators ( eu flashing yellow ones) are getting smaller: ok at night, but during the day...very hard to see. I prefer the US red brake/ blinker to these tiny mf's.
*2 Animated (EU only?) yellow indicators. The transition between each segment (usually five?) is always too slow, and very distracting. I prefer the US, and very terrible, blinky-brake lights to these disco-on-xanax horrors.
3. Why can’t there be a sign for 'zippering' where traffic merges?
The occupational hazard of driving a really low to the ground Mini is that every new car with Bright-Ass-Lights (our family name for them) heading towards me is a punch into my eyeball. Fortunately I can flip the rear-view prism mirror to deal with similar vehicles behind me. The new trucks - raptors and f-150 - are particularly obnoxious, they are 2x my height and terrifying.
I passionately loathe Porsche headlights in general. The particular pattern of 4 very bright dots constantly tricks my eyes into thinking they are focusing incorrectly which is distracting and borderline painful. The Macan EV's pattern of lines rather than dots actually _alleviates_ this problem for me so I'm somewhat disappointed it's _this_ Porsche and not every other one on the road whose headlights are being replaced.
The headlights aren't being replaced, it's just a software fix. Still a bit of a fail for Porsche if a software fix requires a dealer visit and can't be deployed over-the-air, though.
My little Toyota did dim the light or just lower the light … and hence it is better. You need the high beam all the time in uk roads as they mostly do not have road lights. But keep in switch on and off in my old cars are hard.
But those high beam can kill me one day no doubt. Too many close call and hence the little Toyota i got I feel comfortable to use the high beam all the time.
It's a race: brighter lights and tainted glass. Looks really cool. Give privacy to the driver of such vehicle, while allowing them to see the road. Good for them.
But other road users: bikes, pedestrians, old car drivers... They suffer.
The only way to improve your situation: also buy a new car with bright lights and tainted glass.
The more tinted your windows are the brighter headlights you need, easy! You can also wear sunglasses at all times which allows for even brighter headlights. Absolute pro tip - cover the windows externally with reflective foil to return any light anyone will dare to beam at your car.
Ah yes, computer programmers on reddit doing what they do best: thinking that they're so very smart (because they're programmers) and thus more qualified than professionals in their own fields. Can't fool them! They're not one of those sheeple!
> “First, I’d like to teach you some words,”
How has his brain not imploded from the fatal levels of condescension? He thought a writer wouldn't know what "obfuscation" means?
Also: that is a magazine about football, and an article written by someone who writes about culture items like Taylor Swift. It's not "reporting." It's (at best) commentary.
Completely missing: any sources from people who, you know, actually know what the hell they're talking about.
For example, someone who knows what the hell they're talking about could point out that the flood of photos from digital cameras in that subreddit, used as "proof", are from digital cameras which have barely a few f-stops of dynamic range, whereas the human eye has thirty. The very best digital SLRs in the world have a dynamic range of around 14 stops.
In the mean time, whilst we wait for our ancient laws to catch up to the advent of the LED headlight, it would be really cool if everyone could find that little bit logic and intuition in themselves to do their best to adapt something like this, as their ~"etiquette"~ for night driving;
AUTO HI-BEAMS: OFF (always OFF)
HI-BEAMS ON: ONLY when there are no cars in front of you
APPROACHING BRIGHT HEADLIGHTS: Short 2x burst. Resist going further than this, just glance off to the passsenger-side of your windshield and avoid looking directly at the lights, deep in thought...
IF you are FLASHED by oncoming traffic, at least CHECK (the indicator on your dash will be a very bright BLUE) - IF they are ON then TURN THEM OFF. IF they are off THEN give a courtesy SHORT 1-2x flash.
IF the car(s) IN FRONT of you seem to be excessively braking or flashing their HI-BEAMS seemingly at random - CHECK YOURS! Courtesy flash not recommended so much here.
Cars BEHIND you with BRIGHT LIGHTS? Brake tap might or might not help, I also target large traffic signs with some short rapid bursts to hopefully get their attention.
At some point, doing nothing becomes the best strategy. Some people really do love antagonizing.
Stay focused when you're driving, you should be striving to do it "like a pro" and with respect for others.
/psa
p.s. that botton in your light control cluster that you don't know what it is? Leave it off please. Those are your Tow-lamps and they make your taillights extremely bright.
How odd. I used to own a car that had an easily accessible setting adjusting lights to the EU or UK settings. Surely they ought to be a similar setting in Porsches?
I don't see why American Porsches would need such an option? Where is the closest left-hand traffic country relative to the US and how feasible is it to get your car there?
[+] [-] crnkofe|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ryandrake|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] lovich|1 year ago|reply
I have a 2021 model vehicle and it has an “auto” setting for headlights, where it turns them on or off automatically depending on if it detects a car in front of them. It’s better latency then I have as a human remembering I have them on and turning them off so I use the feature but it’s definitely not instant and I’ve noticed it fail to detect a few times when there’s obstructions over the sensor like snow or rain.
I assume this wasn’t unique to my $30k model of car and is a common feature now, so might be the cause of the extra brightness
[+] [-] vladvasiliu|1 year ago|reply
Aren't self-leveling headlights standard by now? I think in the EU it was mandatory for Xenon lights, but I don't know whether LED lights are considered differently. My dad's almost 20 yo Citroën had such headlights, even though, thanks to the funky suspension, the car never had dramatic changes in level.
[+] [-] ljf|1 year ago|reply
We have a wattage maximum for headlights too. I am under the impression that roadworthiness test and regulations are very different in the states - is that the case?
[+] [-] numpad0|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] anarticle|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] foobarian|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] tradertef|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] josephcsible|1 year ago|reply
> Due to a software data set error, the affected vehicles were programmed from the factory after the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) specs, whereas U.S.-spec vehicles need to conform to the requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS).
Presumably, if there were a way for the headlights to comply with both US and EU regulations, they'd just have them be that way everywhere, rather than having to deal with multiple configurations at all. So are the US and EU both saying that each other's way is wrong and too dangerous?
[+] [-] thephyber|1 year ago|reply
I remember reading that the US car safety rules generally assume that the people in the car do not follow the rules, whereas EU regulations assume they follow the law and use seatbelts.
US crash safety tests don’t care about the damage the car does to pedestrians, but EU regulations do factor that in.
https://www.npr.org/2015/10/16/449090584/why-arent-auto-safe...
[+] [-] echoangle|1 year ago|reply
The US limits the brightness to X, the EU limits the brightness to Y, and Y > X.
Porsche could just make every car globally use X, but they’re a luxury brand so they probably try to use Y where they can, even if it is a bit of work to differentiate between markets.
[+] [-] egorfine|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] abeppu|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|1 year ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] onion2k|1 year ago|reply
Unless someone in the marketing department has determined that headlight brightness is a selling point for 0.001% of customers, in which case they'd configure them to the maximum allowed in the region.
[+] [-] potato3732842|1 year ago|reply
Real life disagreements on minor technicalities between competing bureaucracies are not zero sum or conducted in breathless hand wringing internet rhetoric. It's more like a disagreement on a FOSS mailing list.
[+] [-] ErigmolCt|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] gortok|1 year ago|reply
You can go into the car's settings and lower the headlights, but because of where it is by default, it presents a dangerous situation for other cars. How many non-tech folks would know to even search for this option?
https://service.tesla.com/docs/Model3/ServiceManual/en-us/GU...
[+] [-] mbreese|1 year ago|reply
But I think in general (and with other cars too), the problem isn’t the brightness of lights, but their angle. Bit even with my lights lowered, if I’m at a stop light that is on a slight hill, that still can cause the angle of my lights to appear to someone on the other side as too bright.
[+] [-] hyeonwho4|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] HPsquared|1 year ago|reply
Result: people see flashing blue(-ish) light in their rear view mirror. Not a good thing, very distracting!
[+] [-] globular-toast|1 year ago|reply
The worst thing about all these lights is they aren't static. For a start I can see the LEDs flickering, presumably due to PWM. Why a fully DC circuit that doesn't even dim the bulbs needs to use PWM is beyond me. But the worst is their "clever" auto levelling and dipping etc. It just looks like the light is constantly in flux which is really distracting and annoying.
[+] [-] OptionOfT|1 year ago|reply
Being from Europe, the European ones are superior. They go further and they are brighter, and have a different cut-off: ECE vs DOT: https://i.ibb.co/ryf8W0w/dotece.jpg
When I lived in Europe (Belgium) every year the beam height was checked on my car. That way I wouldn't blind people when driving behind them.
Here in there US there are no such things, yet cars often enough get headlights replaced which aren't adjusted afterwards. Or people install a lift-kit which hasn't been taken into account when designing the vehicle.
Now I wonder if the Macan has different lights in the US vs ROW, as the cut-off isn't something that is easily changeable, and it would massively increase the cost for something that is never activated.
But having the same bulbs makes sense.
That said, I looked into replacing the headlights on mine, but then you end up with a Frankenstein's monster car, as parts of it are US coded, and parts EU. I did get EU mirrors.
[+] [-] mitjam|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Ylpertnodi|1 year ago|reply
Related:
1) indicators ( eu flashing yellow ones) are getting smaller: ok at night, but during the day...very hard to see. I prefer the US red brake/ blinker to these tiny mf's.
*2 Animated (EU only?) yellow indicators. The transition between each segment (usually five?) is always too slow, and very distracting. I prefer the US, and very terrible, blinky-brake lights to these disco-on-xanax horrors.
3. Why can’t there be a sign for 'zippering' where traffic merges?
4 - Why can’t people just zipper-in anyway?
[+] [-] cmiller1|1 year ago|reply
Yes!
https://www.kyocera-sldlaser.com/bright-solutions/automotive
[+] [-] unknown|1 year ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ppp999|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] danielodievich|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] colanderman|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Reason077|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] tester756|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] nottorp|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] teeray|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ngcc_hk|1 year ago|reply
But those high beam can kill me one day no doubt. Too many close call and hence the little Toyota i got I feel comfortable to use the high beam all the time.
[+] [-] __mharrison__|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] mistercheph|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] deskr|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] cies|1 year ago|reply
But other road users: bikes, pedestrians, old car drivers... They suffer.
The only way to improve your situation: also buy a new car with bright lights and tainted glass.
[+] [-] lifestyleguru|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] foundart|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] KennyBlanken|1 year ago|reply
> “First, I’d like to teach you some words,”
How has his brain not imploded from the fatal levels of condescension? He thought a writer wouldn't know what "obfuscation" means?
Also: that is a magazine about football, and an article written by someone who writes about culture items like Taylor Swift. It's not "reporting." It's (at best) commentary.
Completely missing: any sources from people who, you know, actually know what the hell they're talking about.
For example, someone who knows what the hell they're talking about could point out that the flood of photos from digital cameras in that subreddit, used as "proof", are from digital cameras which have barely a few f-stops of dynamic range, whereas the human eye has thirty. The very best digital SLRs in the world have a dynamic range of around 14 stops.
[+] [-] sans_souse|1 year ago|reply
AUTO HI-BEAMS: OFF (always OFF)
HI-BEAMS ON: ONLY when there are no cars in front of you
APPROACHING BRIGHT HEADLIGHTS: Short 2x burst. Resist going further than this, just glance off to the passsenger-side of your windshield and avoid looking directly at the lights, deep in thought...
IF you are FLASHED by oncoming traffic, at least CHECK (the indicator on your dash will be a very bright BLUE) - IF they are ON then TURN THEM OFF. IF they are off THEN give a courtesy SHORT 1-2x flash.
IF the car(s) IN FRONT of you seem to be excessively braking or flashing their HI-BEAMS seemingly at random - CHECK YOURS! Courtesy flash not recommended so much here.
Cars BEHIND you with BRIGHT LIGHTS? Brake tap might or might not help, I also target large traffic signs with some short rapid bursts to hopefully get their attention.
At some point, doing nothing becomes the best strategy. Some people really do love antagonizing.
Stay focused when you're driving, you should be striving to do it "like a pro" and with respect for others.
/psa
p.s. that botton in your light control cluster that you don't know what it is? Leave it off please. Those are your Tow-lamps and they make your taillights extremely bright.
[+] [-] surfingdino|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] arkh|1 year ago|reply
Many people on the continent need to learn about this. Lot of them are lighting up the opposite lane like if it was the side of the road instead.
[+] [-] potato3732842|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Hamuko|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|1 year ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] lifestyleguru|1 year ago|reply